Hospital beds are used in critical care rooms which are designed to provide patients with many services such as oxygen, vacuum, vital signs monitors, and other services. The critical care rooms have these services so the care providers and nurses may correctly apply the available patient care instruments as needed.
A typical hospital bed is about 42 inches in width and the nurse must physically reach, touch, and manipulate the patient in order to perform the required health care treatment. Even with the most efficient health care equipment, the nurse is required to take many steps in the patient's room to perform these many necessary services. The nurse must access the patient within the centermost portion of the bed and the nearest edge of the bed and then walk to the opposite side of the hospital bed in order to have access to the furthermost side of the bed or patient. Furthermore, the hospital bed within a critical care room is frequently aligned on one lateral side of the bed with the required health care equipment, thereby inhibiting access to the patient on that side of the bed and requiring the care provider to awkwardly and inconveniently reach over the patient to gain access from one side of the bed to the opposite side.
A typical hospital bed is so wide that the nurse or care provider cannot conveniently reach both sides of the patient or cannot reach equipment located on the opposite side of the bed from which the nurse stands. The hospital bed has a patient support surface mounted on a base, and the patient support surface includes a mattress that is usually between 34 and 36 inches wide. Side guards are added to the bed so that the overall width dimension of the hospital bed is about 42 inches. A care provider who is 5'2" could reach across about 25 to 30 inches of the 36 inch bed. Thus, the nurse cannot reach equipment that is located on the opposite side of the bed from the nurse and cannot conveniently reach the extremities of the patient to which health care administration equipment may be connected.
Prior solutions to the above-mentioned problems are shown in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,083,332; 5,077,843; 5,054,141; and 4,985,946, each assigned to the assignee of the present invention. U.S. Pat. No. 5,083,332 discloses a full size hospital bed convertible to a stretcher width bed when an inflatable mattress tube on each side of the bed is deflated. An air transfer system is provided for inflating the mattress tubes. U.S. Pat. No. 5,077,843 also discloses a hospital bed with collapsible side sections on each side of the bed. The collapsible side sections consist of inflatable mattress sections mounted on wings that can swing from a horizontal position to a vertical position. The inflatable sections are connected to a compressor for quick inflation.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,054,141 and 4,985,946 are each directed to a hospital bed with longitudinal side sections that are removable by pivoting them upward thereby collapsing the mattress portion overlying the side section. Alternatively, the side sections can be physically removed and placed at the head end of the bed thereby narrowing the width of the hospital bed.